Timing margin evaluation with a simple statistical timing analysis flow

Abstract

The increase of within-die variations and the design margin growth are creating a need for statistical design methodologies. This paper proposes a simple statistical timing analysis method considering the lot to lot process shifts that occur during production. This method is validated for 90~nm and 65~nm process. Finally, this statistical timing analysis is applied to evaluate, on basic ring oscillators and combinational paths, the timing margins introduced at the design level by the traditional corner based approach.